The New York Conference
by thoughtsthatfester
Summary: Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Future-fic. Lizzie and Darcy go on a business trip to New York with her department and fail at hiding their relationship.


He had a habit of dropping into her office unannounced. She had scolded him at first, but he reminded her that he was the CEO of the company and he could drop in on his employees whenever he wanted. However, he actually had a reason for dropping in on her today.

"Ms. Bennet," he said knocking on the door with the hint of a smirk on his face, "do I have permission to enter?"

"Please do, Mr. Darcy," she said smiling at the formality, "please take a seat," she gestured to one of the chairs in front of her desk.

"Thank you, Ms. Bennet. I have some important business to discuss with you."

"Important business? Should I make some coffee?" she asked him.

"Coffee would be great."

She rose from her desk and went over to the coffee maker positioned on the side of the room, scooping in some organic coffee for him. His eyes had followed her across the room, focused intently on her legs, which were more exposed than normal, her dress having ridden up as she reached for the coffee on her bookshelf.

"Lizzie," he breathed as she turned around with a mug in her hand.

"Yes, Mr. Darcy," she cocked an eyebrow at him.

"You look beautiful today. Not that you don't look beautiful everyday, it's just you look even more beautiful than usual."

"Thank you. My boyfriend bought me this dress, do you like it?"

"Your boyfriend has excellent taste," he said as he rose chuckling from his seat, crossing the room and trapping her body between his and the bookcase.

"Are you coming on to me?" she whispered in mock horror, dropping the mug next to the coffee maker.

"Yes," he said, his lips meeting hers in a kiss. The kiss grew in intensity, their hands all over each other.

"Will," she panted, her chest heaving from the intensity of the kiss she'd just broken, "my office door doesn't lock, we can't"

"Alright," he said taking a step back, "I just haven't seen you in three nights." He had been away on a business trip and got back too late the night before to head over to her apartment.

"I can take a long lunch," she smiled.

"Excellent," he smiled back.

"Was that your important business? I think human resources might find that business to be sexual harassment," she teased.

"No, that was not my important business and you know Mrs. Reynolds would never punish us for this."

"Will, let's get on with the actual business. I can take lunch in an hour."

"Alright," he said sitting back down and fixing his bowtie that had been rumpled by the kiss, "it's about the New York conference."

"Did I tell you Charlotte and Rickey are going to be there?" she interrupted.

"Yes, you mentioned it," he said, "well," he cleared his throat, "I wanted to ask you before I did it, but I was just going to book us one room."

"Will," she hissed, "it's a business trip. It would be highly unprofessional."

"You know Pemberley doesn't have any policies against employees dating. In fact, I encourage it, it makes things easier for everyone."

"I know it's not against company policy, but people talk. I've only been here for six months. People will talk. I can't just share a hotel room with the CEO, my boss's boss's boss's boss as an entry level employee."

"All the people who need to know, know about our relationship already."

"Yeah, all the higher ups up there on the top floors with you."

"Exactly."

"No, but the people down here with me don't know and they're going to talk. They're going to make things difficult for me if they find out."

"Please let me know if anyone gives you a hard time so I can deal with it directly."

"Will, you can't do that. I can't get special treatment. I don't want people to think I'm sleeping with you only to advance my career."

"Right," he said looking down, "I'm sorry I wasn't thinking about your career. I was only thinking about how romantic a trip to New York would be."

"You don't have to be sorry, you just have to think about how the things we do look to others. After all, I've only been here for six months."

"I wouldn't want anyone to think you're receiving special treatment. I'm glad I asked," he said getting up to leave.

"Will," she said causing him to turn around, "just because we won't be in the same hotel room doesn't mean I won't sneak in after everyone else has gone to sleep."

He smiled, "I'll meet you outside in an hour so we can grab lunch."

"Alright," she smiled back.

Most of her department was headed to the conference, along with the CEO on the Pemberley Digital corporate jet. Unfortunately, the head of her department had snagged the seat next to the CEO to have his ear for the entire cross-country flight. This meant that Lizzie was seated a few rows behind him, much to his displeasure.

The department head, Mr. Watson, reminded him of Mr. Collins in a lot of ways as he talked his ear off about upcoming projects and pitches he had from the company. However, these pitches included unnecessary praise and plenty of ass kissing. It was already an hour into the flight and William Darcy wanted to scream. He pretended to have to answer super important emails, but Mr. Watson did not get the hint. He was drawn from his fake emailing by Mr. Watson calling over one of his employees who was headed to the bathroom.

"Ms. Bennet," he called, "have you been introduced to Pemberley's CEO?"

"Yes, Mr. Watson, I have," she said, her eyes meeting Darcy's.

"Excellent. I was just discussing home new video formats with him. What do you think of the vlog format as a platform for information sharing and storytelling?"

"A vlog format?" she sputtered. Darcy was biting his bottom lip to suppress a laugh, "Well, I think it's an interesting platform, although the first person narration can allow for an extremely biased narrator, but I think it's a very interesting concept."

"I couldn't agree more, Ms. Bennet," Darcy said with a smirk.

"Excellent," Mr. Watson said, oblivious to the looks being shared between them, "my idea is to adapt a novel, such as Anna Karenina into a vlog format."

"It would help present Anna as a sympathetic character," Darcy added, impressed by the idea.

"That would imply that Anna isn't a sympathetic character, Mr. Darcy."

'That would be correct Ms. Bennet."

"You're wrong about Anna then."

"You can't be wrong in how you interpret a book."

"Of course you can."

"Ms. Bennet, you cannot speak to the CEO that way," he said betfore turning to Mr. Darcy, "Sir, I apologize for Ms. Bennet's rude behavior and I assure you that it will never happen again and she will be reprimanded accordingly.

"I assure you, Mr. Watson, that is not necessary. I was not offended. Ms. Bennet and I are old friends. This Anna Karenina debate has been going on for quite some time."

"Forgive me, I was unaware. Perhaps Pemberley could do an adaptation of something less controversial like Wuthering Heights." Darcy and Lizzie both made a face at this, "What?" Mr. Watson asked.

"Heathcliff is even less sympathetic a character than Anna," Darcy began.

"You don't feel for his struggle with Cathy and his unending love for her?" Mr. Watson asked.

"Heathcliff is rather creepy, don't you agree Ms. Bennet?"

"Exactly. I know that he and Cathy weren't biological siblings but they were raised that way, making it quasi-incest."

"And, if they really loved each other, they would have found a way to be together."

"If you really love someone, you don't marry someone else, no matter the circumstances. I would rather die a spinster than marry anyone other than my true love."

"Precisely, if Heathcliff really loved her, he would have rather been a lone than with anyone else."

"Well," Mr. Watson interrupted, eying them suspiciously, "Maybe if we got to hear the reasoning behind why Heathcliff does what he does in a vlog format, he would be more sympathetic."

"Perhaps, Mr. Watson. I'm going to put Ms. Bennet on your vlog team for this project."

"Very good, sir," he said.

"Now, I have to take care of some personal emails, but we can resume this conversation at a later date, perhaps when the team has a pitch ready."

Darcy opened his laptop, Lizzie finally made her way to the bathroom, and Watson tried not to look at his boss's computer screen. He couldn't help but see an email composed with ebennet . He tries not to get too suspicious.

Darcy noticed Watson glancing suspiciously at him and Lizzie during the remainder of the flight, so he makes sure he and Lizzie take separate cabs to meet Charlotte and Mr. Collins for dinner that night. He also had to make sure no one saw Lizzie enter his room. It would have all been so much less stressful if Lizzie would allow their relationship to become common knowledge.

After dinner, which was more enjoyable than he had expected, he and Lizzie had gone into his hotel room. After they'd watched a movie and made love (more than once) she was too tired to go back to her room, so she's fallen asleep in his arms, setting her alarm to go back to her room early.

Her plan was perfect, or would have been perfect if someone hadn't pulled the fire alarm at three in the morning. As the alarm blared, they scrambled for clothes to keep them warm on the crisp fall night. She'd left the room first in her dress from dinner, his dress shirt, and his ratty old Harvard sweatshirt that he only wore to bed. He followed in pajama bottoms, a long sleeved Harvard t-shirt and a pair of slippers.

"How do you look so put together?" she whispered as they started down the stairs.

"I'm always put together," he smiled.

"People are going to figure it out," she said stopping on the third floor landing.

"Figure what out?" he asked as he dragged her along down the stairs.

"Don't play dumb. I clearly wasn't in my room and you're the only one on this trip who went to Harvard."

"This wouldn't have happened if you'd have let me just book us one room."

"How was I supposed to know this would happen," she said exiting the lobby, "Shit, it's cold."

"Come here," he said extending his arms to her.

"No, people will see."

"Fine. Just squat down and cover your legs with the sweatshirt."

"I can't squat down. I'm not wearing any underwear."

He let out a very loud chuckle, "Oh Lizzie."

"Stop. This isn't funny!"

"Why aren't you wearing underwear?"

"I don't know where you through it. I couldn't find it.

"Excuse me?" came Watson from a few feet away.

"Fuck," Lizzie swore loudly.

"It's not what it looks like," Darcy told him calmly.

"Is this why she is on the vlog team?"

"Lizzie is on the vlog team because she is the best for the job. She has extensive experience in video diaries. I assure you that she is receiving no special treatment as my girlfriend."

"If you don't believe him, you can watch the video diaries I did. I know what I'm doing."

"Alright," Watson said, uncrossing his arms, "I believe you," he said before walking away, presumably to go tell the rest of the department what he had just witnessed.

"Will, go stop him. I don't want people to know."

"There's not much we can do at this point. He was bound to find out someday. We couldn't keep this a secret forever."

"You're right," she said wrapping her arms around him, "I'm cold," she said into his chest.

"We'll be allowed back inside soon," he said kissing her temple.

The fire department took longer than expected inside the hotel and they were waiting out for over an hour. Long enough for her to hear, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife," from the iPhones of her coworkers as they said on the cold pavement to entertain themselves.

"I should have deleted them," she said hiding his face in his shirt.

"Think of it this way, at least this way we won't have to book two hotel rooms at the next conference we go to."

"I hate you," she said as his chest shook with laughter.

"I love you too Lizzie Bennet."


End file.
